


First Person Shooter

by scullywolf



Series: TXF: Scenes in Between [153]
Category: The X-Files
Genre: Banter, F/M, Guns, MSR, Missing Scene, Swearing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-22
Updated: 2017-02-22
Packaged: 2018-09-26 05:26:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,072
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9864902
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scullywolf/pseuds/scullywolf
Summary: Three off-screen scenes from FPS.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Once again, our intrepid duo arrive at a crime scene in California before the body's even been moved yet. I decided enough is enough and set this one immediately after X-COPS, since they were already in L.A. for that case.

They’re at LAX waiting for their flight home when his phone rings.

“Mulder.”

“Mulder! It’s Langly. How soon can you get to L.A.?”

“Uhh…” He looks around the bustling airport terminal, half-wondering if the guys are here somewhere and this is some sort of joke. “Why do you ask?”

“Well, I shouldn’t get into it over the phone, but we could really use your help here, man.”

“Langly, you’re gonna have to give me more to go on than that. I can’t just drop everything and fly to L.A. just because you ask me to.”

Scully turns to look at him, eyebrows raised, and he has to curb a laugh.

“Dude, I signed an NDA--” There’s a rustling sound and a muffled, “I told you I should’ve been the one to call him!” before Frohike takes over the phone. 

“Mulder! Buddy! How’s it going?”

Mulder shakes his head, smiling, and turns the phone away from his ear so Scully can hear too. She leans in. “Going fine, Frohike. What’s going on with you guys?”

“Listen, we’ve got a bit of a situation here. Some, uh, associates of ours could really use someone with your expertise to help deal with a… well, it’s a little problem. And for reasons of confidentiality, I’m not at liberty to discuss it over the phone. But you trust me, right?”

He looks over at Scully, who rolls her eyes. “I dunno. Do you have any idea how many times we’ve been back and forth to California so far this year? That’s an awfully long way to go just to do you guys a favor when you won’t even tell me what I’m coming out there for.”

“Aw, c’mon, man! I wouldn’t be asking if it weren’t important!”

He laughs. “Relax, Melvin. I’m just messing with you. Actually, you boys are in luck. Scully and I are sitting at LAX right now as a matter of fact, waiting to go back home. I can’t promise she’ll want to join me in whatever mess you guys have gotten yourselves into, but I can come try to help you out.”

“Oh, you son of a bitch…”

“Whoa, easy there, buddy. Better watch your mouth or I’ll get on this plane. Don’t think I won’t do it.”

Scully pulls away and sits back in her chair, shaking her head. She pulls out her notepad and pen, handing them to him before he has a chance to get his own, and he shoots her an appreciative grin. He writes down the address Frohike gives him, hangs up the phone, then turns to her.

“You wanna head home while I deal with the three stooges?”

“Want to? Oh, absolutely. After the night we just had, I would honestly like nothing more than a glass of wine and a hot bath.” She sighs. “But… something tells me that I’ll get all the way back to Washington, only to find out that you need me here to do an autopsy or something, and then I’ll be _back_ on a plane to California tomorrow, kicking myself the whole way.”

“It’s okay to admit that you don’t want to miss out on spending some quality time with Frohike, Scully.” She glares at him, and he chuckles. “No, you’re probably right. Okay, why don’t you get our tickets changed, and I’ll go deal with getting us another rental car.”

“All right.” He stands and picks up his overnight bag, and as he turns to walk away, she calls after him. “And Mulder? You can be the one to call Skinner this time.”


	2. Chapter 2

_“I don’t know about you, Scully, but I am feeling the great need to blast the crap out of something.”_

She’s not going to let it get to her.

He was an absolute _pig_ in there just now, but they are both adults, and it’s not as if he isn’t allowed to look at other women. Especially leggy, buxom, barely-clothed, porn-star-looking women… 

It’s also not as if Ms. Afterglow appeared to be at all offended by the attention. And Mulder certainly wasn’t the only one ogling. Every damned one of those sheriff’s deputies was acting like a boy with a stolen copy of _Penthouse_. She would almost be embarrassed for them if it weren’t so fucking irritating.

But she’s not letting it get to her.

What she _is_ is tired. They were up all night last night, chasing some nightmare monster through the streets of Willow Park, and since their aborted flight home this afternoon, they have trekked halfway across Southern California, investigated a seemingly-impossible murder, and she’s performed both an autopsy _and_ an interrogation. She’s running exclusively on coffee and a 90-minute nap in the car. Mulder, meanwhile, is apparently relying solely on testosterone to keep himself awake.

She sighs. They need to go back to FPS so they can ask Ivan why he body-scanned a stripper to create a computer game character that is now inexplicably killing people in real life. That is an actual question they need to ask. Because “invisible shapeshifting nightmare monster” wasn’t enough weirdness in the past 24 hours.

“Scully! Are you getting in the car or not?”

“Huh?” She blinks, realizing that she’s been standing with her hand on the door handle of their rental car for she’s not sure how long. “Sorry, I uh, I think I zoned out there for a sec.”

In the car, she covers a yawn with her hand, then buckles her seatbelt. Mulder drums on the steering wheel, waiting for the parade of squad cars behind them to move so he can back out of the parking space. 

“I sure hope nothing important was going on in the streets of L.A. County while these officers were all so busy here,” she says dryly.

“Oh, I’m sure the female deputies were able to hold down the fort for a little while.” She turns to him, her mouth falling open in shock, and he has the gall to laugh. “I’m kidding, Scully. I get it, men are pigs, yada yada. What do you want me to say?”

“It’s just embarrassing, isn’t it? I mean, don’t you think it’s embarrassing to be so, so thoroughly poisoned by testosterone that you can’t even focus on your job?”

“In what way have I not been focused on my job?”

“I don’t mean _you_ specifically, I just mean--”

“Scully, if the mere act of interviewing an attractive woman were enough to distract me from the task at hand, I never in a million years would have been able to survive working with you for so long.”

She scoffs. “Please don’t patronize me, Mulder.”

“I’m serious! You think I don’t find you attractive?”

“I think that I am indisputably _not_ a 5’11” erotic dancer with antigravity breasts and a propensity for clothing that leaves almost nothing to the imagination. You don’t have to try and soothe my ego by suggesting I compare in any way to that. It’s frankly insulting, actually.”

He’s silent for a minute, then clears his throat. “I, uh, I guess this’d be a bad time to admit I’m now imagining you wearing that outfit and, uh…” He takes one hand off the wheel to gesture vaguely at his lap.

“Oh my God, Mulder.”

“I’m sorry! I mean I’m not _sorry_ , but--”

“Just… never mind, okay?” She pinches the bridge of her nose. “Look, we’re both tired, and we’re coping with it in different ways, I get it. Let’s just try to focus on the case so we can get out of here and… forget any of this ever happened.”

“Wait, are you saying you’re upset that I got aroused thinking about you wearing a skimpy outfit? Because that seems a little unfair.”

“I’m not _upset_. And if I were, it wouldn’t be because of that. I know this may come as a shock to you, Mulder, but I do know a thing or two about human physiology--”

“Yeah, you’re a medical doctor. I think you might’ve mentioned it once or twice.”

She glares at him, for what feels like the millionth time today. “I’m _saying_ that we still have no idea how these people are being killed, that nothing about this case makes any kind of sense whatsoever, and to top it all off, I’m surrounded by grown men who seem to devolve into panting dogs in the face of, of laser blasters and fantasy women.”

“Technically I don’t think laser blasters have faces--”

“Mulder, that’s not even what that phrase means.”

“I know, I’m _kidding_. Look, Scully, you said it yourself. We’re both exhausted, and maybe I have been acting a little immaturely. Is it really such a terrible thing, though? Having a little fun once in a while, even if it’s stupid fun?”

Sighing, she leans her head against the window. “No, I suppose it’s not.”

“And you know that there is no woman on Earth I would rather be with, right?”

She snorts. “You’re saying if Miss Jade Blue Afterglow were a legitimate option, you’d turn her down?”

“Do you really think so little of me that you don’t already know the answer to that question?”

“I’ll point out that you’re refusing to answer it, so…”

“Scully!”

“Look, this is stupid! Look at us.” She sits up straight again, turning a little in the seat to face him. “It doesn’t even matter. None of this matters. Let’s just… can we just drop it? Please?”

He slumps a little in his seat, and guilt temporarily overshadows her irritation. She _is_ treating him unfairly; even if his behavior has been somewhat lacking in maturity, he’s done nothing to deserve her questioning his commitment to her. For that matter, he doesn’t _owe_ her anything. It’s not as if they’re married, and they’ve never even so much as had a conversation about whether this thing between them is… well, she’s pretty sure he loves her as much as she loves him, and they’ve never needed to put a name to it. There’s no reason for her to start doubting him now. And the thing is, she doesn’t even doubt him, really.

Ugh, she’s just so damned tired. 

“Damn it, I’m sorry, Mulder.” She reaches over and puts a hand on his leg. After a very, very long pause, he puts a hand over hers.

So much for not letting it get to her.


	3. Chapter 3

His biceps are straining so hard, it feels like they’re going to rupture. This sword is going to give before the door does, and Scully’s got to be nearly out of ammo. Behind him, he hears another tank explode, and he grits his teeth in desperation.

He narrowly avoids hitting himself in the face with the sword hilt when the door flies open, the resistance completely and suddenly gone. Whirling, he drops the sword and grabs Scully around the waist, hauling her backward into the staging room as the projections in the game room glitch and flicker. The door crashes down again the moment they’re through, and he falls back on the floor, panting.

Scully is crouched over him in an instant. “Oh my God, Mulder, are you all right? Did you get hit?”

Instead of answering, he grabs the back of her head and pulls her down into a kiss. The adrenaline coursing through his system only amplifies the memory of seeing her charge through that door, armed to the teeth and dressed like some kind of futuristic warrior queen. It was quite possibly the biggest turn-on of his entire life, seeing her in that moment, and coupled now with the relief of having survived… He knows everyone is bound to come looking for them soon but god damn if he doesn’t want to have her right here and right now.

And if the way she’s kissing him back is any indication, he’s not the only one feeling _inspired_ by their misadventure.

He twines his fingers through her hair, and she straight-up moans into his mouth. It’s a shame about the whole “video game that actually kills you in real life” thing because this would be one hell of a fantastic recurring date-type activity.

They could probably even write it off as “team-building” or something.

There’s shouting and banging on the door, and she springs away from him with a gasp. Above him, she looks dazed and rumpled, and he is incredibly grateful for the ridiculous codpiece thing he’s wearing.


End file.
